ilultham

 So if you have read this blog for any length of time you'll know that I love damsons. When ripe they're up there with some of my favourite fruits. One reason why I put about another 14 in this year in our new hedge in the second field.  Unfortunately, other than the one in the photo above (a Merryweather - my favourite as it is a "freestone" damson), the others don't seem to be doing so well in the orchard that I planted 8 years ago .  One seems to have reverted back to it's rootstock and is growing like crazy. But no fruit and very spiky. I'm not sure if I should try grafting or budding this one over to something else, or to rip it out with the digger and plant something else completely, especially as I'll have more damsons than I'll know what to do with with once the hedge as established.  The second had started growing with a serious lead. Duel domancy I think it's called where it ended up growing two leaders. Unfortunately this has lead to...

I'm so pleased with the last week - we have a new fence and hedge in! Woop!  We did this years ago with the first field nearest the house , to separate off the footpath from the field and make things more private. We kept thinking about doing this with the second field as well, but it was during lockdown and seeing how few people kept their dogs on leads and could control them that made us decide that this was the right thing to do.  time kept slipping on this year though and it kept being really wet. I had planned to put the fence up, with the help of my dad and the post knocker, but with it getting close to spring and a lot of trees that needed to go into the ground it was time to just bite the bullet and get the professionals in. My friends Alex and Chris (along with Jamie) came with all the right gear and experience and got the two runs of 100m and a pair of gates hung in a day! They've done such a tidy job of it I can't help but smile when I look at it.  A lot of tre...